26th Athens International Film Festival: Press Conference

The Festival’s Artistic Director, Loukas Katsikas, welcomed those who attended the press conference as well as those watching the live streaming of the event through the Festival’s social media pages. In a touching and optimistic greeting for this year’s Festival event he said:

“When the 26th Athens International Film Festival completes this year’s screenings, it will  be more memorable than ever before. Firstly, we’ll remember it as one of the few festivals in the world which was lucky enough to take place in its original format, at a time when this relentless year of 2020 has taught us not to take anything for granted. We’ll refer to it as the first hybrid Festival in the country - a bold combination of sreennings in indoor and open-air cinemas as well as through a digital platform, thus making it accessible to as many people as possible from all over Greece. But we’ll also remember it as the Festival people embraced with much love and a great sense of duty.

In a clearly dystopian year, where film and cinema screens, themselves, almost became things of extinction, the Athens International Film Festival wished to defend, more than ever before, the importance of cinemas as a physical place and a participatory process, to bring audiences together again through a divine experience and to secure safe circumstances under which to watch films together.

By the time the 26th Athens International Film Festival has completed its last screening for this year, I would like to believe that film and culture will have acted as a remedy. They will have beaten introversion and insecurity, they will have pushed away doom and gloom and will have reinforced audience members with exciting new images and a great reserve of optimism: the necessary supplies to go on.”

He went on to give his profound thanks to the President of the Athens Film Society, Mrs Maria Mpompola, for her faith in this year’s Festival event and for “facing challenges, imposed by the current urgent health circumstances, together”. He continued by inviting the General Secretary of Contemporary Culture, Mr Nicholas Yatromanolakis to the podium to give his own greeting.

The General Secretary expressed his joy at the implementation of the 26th Athens International Film Festival and emphasised that “this year, the implementation of a cultural event was neither self-evident  nor  could it be taken for granted and the fact that the Athens International Film Festival will take place goes to show the durability and flexibility of the organisation as well as the importance of the conditions under which it was implemented”. He went on to say that “though culture is instrumental and during the pandemic it has taken on comforting and encouraging properties and has acted as an escape route, simultaneously it has taken a greater hit than other sectors in the economy. It is important that we prove that culture can still function under such adverse conditions, and always with safety”. He concluded his speech by urging viewers to “be active, go to the (neighbourhood) cinema and continue to support small and middle-range cultural ventures”.

Mr Katsikas thanked Mr Yatromanolakis profoundly for his encouraging words along with the Minister of Culture and Sports, Mrs Lina Mendoni, the General Directorate of Contemporary Culture and the General Secretariat of Contemporary Culture for their undivided support in the implementation of this year’s Festival event . He also thanked the Minister for Development and Investment, Mr Adonis Georgiadis, and the Secretary General of Public Investment and ESIF, Mr Dimitris Skalkos, for backing the Festival. Mr Katsikas expressed his hope that the Greek State would continue to aid the cultural institutions of the country.

An ongoing and important collaborator of the Athens International Film Festival and the Athens Open Air Film Festival is the City of Athens Cultural, Sport and Youth Organisation (OPANDA). The President of OPANDA, Ms Anna Rokofyllou, stated in the greeting she sent us, as she could not attend the event, that: “ For 26 years the  Athens International Film Festival has proven that it is not a mere static concept. Each year it is renewed and enriched not only with films but also gives cinephiles the opportunity to be in touch with contemporary cinema, its concerns and new ideas, thus allowing film itself to evolve, to become whole and to contribute to the portrayal of human culture”.

The Festival’s Artistic Director took to the podium once more where he proudly spoke of the hybrid nature of the 26th Festival event as it is one of the few Festivals which will be  taking place in its natural habitat, in cinemas, combining for the first time in Greece  the use of indoor and open-air cinemas along with online screenings. He went on to give a concise presentation of the Festival programme which includes 90 feature-length films, 48 short films and 3 Competition Sections with a big part of of the programme highlighting “for yet another year female directors, female actors and female stories by exciting filmmakers and with sensational protagonists who invite us to discover film through a fairer representation”.

Having first mentioned the opening and closing films of the 26th Athens International Film Festival, Loukas Katsikas introduced the members of the International Juries and the awards they will be presenting and invited to the podium the Head of Programming, Kostis Theodosopoulos, to present the films of the International Competition Section and the International Documentary Competition Section. From China and Russia, to South Africa, France, Denmark, Switzerland, Italy and from Greece to the United States of America, Cuba and Mexico the twenty competing films in the international competition sections tell exciting stories, have won big awards at Festivals abroad (Berlin, Sundance, IDFA), were official selections at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival and some will be screened in the presence of their creators.

Next was the turn of the Head of the Greek Short Stories in Competition section and Editor-in-chief of cinemagazine.gr, Panos Gkenas, to present one of the favourite, popular and dynamic sections of the Festival, “Greek Short Stories”, sponsored by Nespresso. Panos Gkenas spoke with great pride and joy of the Greek Short Stories in Competition section and mentioned that the section has featured more than 470 films in the last 8 years, while the submissions for the 26th event  exceeded last year’s record number (311) by reaching 342 “a fact that proves that Greek cinema is present and active but also that young Greek men and women filmmakers trust the Athens International Film Festival as a platform for exhibiting their work”.

He went on to announce two differences to the section this year, one being the increase of the monetary prizes by 2000 Euros thus reaching a total of 5000 Euros with the kind support of the Greek Film Centre and Nepresso, and the other being that the awards for the two best films will bear the Golden Athena and Silver Athena titles, respectively, to be consistent with the awards from the Festival’s other competition sections. He then offered a detailed presentation of the 48 films which will be screened (47 in competition and 1 out of competition) and reminded everyone that during the award ceremony for the Greek Short Stories in Competition section the Nespresso Talents Greek Awards, as part of the Nespresso Talents international film competition with the Virtuous Circles theme, will also be presented.

Afterwards, Loukas Katsikas, spoke extensively on the dynamic presence of Greek cinema and on this year’s Festival which will feature many significant Greek premieres of established filmmaker’s films and documentaries as well as those by new directors. He introduced the Festival’s two tributes, “Carte Blanche to BABEL Magazine” and “A Dream within a Dream: Cinema is Dreaming”, he spoke about the award-winning and highly-anticipated premieres which will be shown as part of the Festival Darlings, Music & Film and ICONS sections but also of the special screenings which will honour great auteurs of world cinema (among them Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, David Lynch, Orson Welles, David Cronenberg and others).

Before the completion of the Press Conference the Festival’s Communications Coordinator, Maria Nathanael, gave a detailed presentation of the Safety Guidelines for this year’s special screenings in venues and spoke of the Festival’s social policy in relation to the support of  vulnerable groups (support of the Mission ANTHROPOS organisation through tickets purchased on viva.gr) and accessibility to screenings.

Before completing his speech and wishing everyone a “Happy Festival, with safety) the Artistic Director of the 26th Athens International Film Festival, Loukas Katsikas, thanked his associates, the supporters and especially our main sponsor, COSMOTE TV, the sponsor of the Greek Short Stories section, Nesprsso, the sponsor of the Fischer Audience Award, the events supporter, Jameson, the Air Travel Sponsor, Aegean, the Transportation Sponsor, Sfakianakis Ltd. - Mini, Zolotas Jewelry, the Athens Concert Hall, Goethe Institut, and Dr. Stefanie Peter and Irida Asimakopoulou, the French Institute of Greece and the French Embassy in Greece and specifically Patrick Comoy and Theo koutsaftis, the Czech Cultural Centre of Athens and Lucie Kuligova,  the Polish Embassy in Greece, the Swedish Embassy in Greece, the Italian Cultural Institute and Luce Cinecitta, the distributors AMA FILMS, FEELGOOD ENTERTAINMENT, FILMTRADE, ODEON/ FOX Searchlight, ROSEBUD 21, STRADA FILMS, CAROUSEL FILMS, WEIRD WAVE and CINOBO, Technopolis City of Athens, TROUT Creative Hub for this year’s spot, Airotel Alexandros hotel for hospitality for festival guests, GIANTES restaurant for providing meals for guests and jury members, the Urban Rail Transport, Viva.gr and Viva Wallet for issuing tickets and film passes and all of the volunteers of this event for their immeasurable help.

OPENING and CLOSING

The 26th Athens International Film Festival will enjoy a celebratory opening with the Greek premiere of NOMADLAND by Chloé Zhao on Wednesday, 23rd September, at the Athens Concert Hall, a few days after its world premiere and great distinction at the Venice Film Festival where it won the Golden Lion.

We would like to thank Odeon | Fox Searchlight for kindly allowing us to screen the film.

The curtains will close on the 26th Festival event on Saturday 3rd October at IDEAL with the Closing Ceremony and the presentation of the awards of the International Competition Sections of the 26th AIFF with the Greek premiere of UNDINE by Christian Petzold. The film’s protagonist, the charming Paula Beer was honoured with the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

We would like to thank ΑΜΑ Films for kindly allowing us to screen the film.

We would like to thank Jameson for greeting those who attended the Press Conference with refreshing cocktails.

You can find the details of the 26th Athens International Film Festival schedule here: www.aiff.gr.

Please note that ticket presales (from www.aiff.gr and www.viva.gr online and at physical points of sales) started on Thursday, 17th September at 10:00 am, while the sale of film passes continues for the 26th Athens International Film Festival. .

For the online screenings of the 26th Athens International Film Festival visit online.aiff.gr

The 26th Athens International Film Festival will take place between 23rd September and the 4th October 2020, in its usual venues, IDEAL, DANAOS1 and OPERA1 cinemas, and exclusively for this year, within the context of the hybrid and safety-minded organisation of the event, films will also be screened at the open air cinemas LAIS - the Greek Film Archive Foundation, RIVIERA, TRIANON STELLA and at Technopolis City of Athens.

For updates and more information tune into the sites of aiff.gr and cinemagazine.gr and the relevant social media pages: Facebook AIFF, Instagram, Twitter.  

The 26th Athens International Film Festival takes place under the auspices of and with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture and Sports.